Security dispute delays jury selection in murder trial

Wednesday

Defense attorneys complained of “barbaric” treatment of their clients in security preparations for a jury trial in a 2002 drive-by shooting Tuesday in Lenawee County Circuit Court.

Defense attorneys complained of “barbaric” treatment of their clients in security preparations for a jury trial in a 2002 drive-by shooting Tuesday in Lenawee County Circuit Court.

Charged in the murder of Marcus Newsom, 20, of Adrian, are three Macomb County men, Leonard Dee McGlown, 45, and twin brothers Paul Edward and Peter Lamount Daniel, 44.

Peter Daniel was wrestled to the floor outside the courtroom while a remote control electronic stun device was strapped to his body. The two other suspects repeatedly objected to wearing the devices but did not struggle with officers.

After the defendants were brought into court, attorney David I. Goldstein of Ann Arbor angrily complained about the treatment of his client, Peter Daniel.

“For him to be treated like that in 21st-century America is absolutely barbaric,” Goldstein told the court. “There was no reason for it. None whatsoever.”

Goldstein said his client has never been disruptive or threatening during any of the hearings he has been in court for since his arrest in April last year.

Judge Margaret M.S. Noe responded that she ordered the electronic devices be used for security reasons during the trial that is expected to last two weeks or more.

Paul Daniel’s attorney, William Mitchell III of Southfield, also objected to treatment he called demeaning in requiring his client to wear a device that could deliver an electronic shock.

McGlown’s attorney, James Daly of Adrian, said his client’s complaint is to having been kept in solitary confinement for much of the time since he was arrested in March last year.

“What he wants to do today is get this trial going and get it over,” Daly said.

At a final pretrial hearing on Sept. 15, McGlown and the Daniel twins each rejected all plea offers that had been made by the prosecution.

“I don’t feel I should take any kind of plea because I didn’t kill no one,” McGlown told the court at the hearing.

The three are accused of firing a volley of gunshots from a van into a car Newsom was driving in Adrian the night of Feb. 9, 2002. The shooting was reportedly a case of mistaken identity. Newsom was driving a relative’s car that a Detroit man the defendants were allegedly hunting was known to drive in Adrian.

Mitchell renewed his objection Tuesday to a joint trial with McGlown, arguing he and the Daniel brothers have conflicting defenses.

“There’s nothing to alter or change my opinion,” said Noe. She rejected motions from the Daniel twins in November in ordering a joint trial for all three suspects. In May she rejected motions for separate juries for McGlown and the Daniel twins. The issue was taken to the Michigan Court of Appeals which ruled in June to not review the question of separate trials or juries before a trial is held in circuit court.

Jury selection did not begin until 1 p.m. Tuesday, rather than 9 a.m. as scheduled. Three separate jury panels are being called in to provide a pool of potential jurors large enough to select 12 jurors and at least one alternate.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys are allowed to dismiss as many as 54 panel members without giving a reason. Ten panel members were dismissed Tuesday afternoon after telling the court they were unable to serve for various reasons.

The three suspects were charged last year after a renewed investigation by Adrian police. The Daniel brothers and McGlown were found inside a van police stopped minutes after the shooting as it was being driven away from Adrian. No charges were filed at that time because of a lack of evidence they were in the van at the time of the shooting and had fired the guns that struck Newsom and the car he was driving.

The one suspect prosecuted in 2002, Cordall R. Neal, 37, also of Macomb?County, was convicted by a Lenawee County Circuit Court jury of first-degree murder and sentenced to a mandatory life prison term without parole.

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